Entertainment

'Mission: Impossible' is only the tip of an iceberg that could sink MoviePass

ADAM ROSENBERGJul 30, 2018

UPDATE: The situation with MoviePass has gotten even more precarious since this post published on Monday morning, with another outage and a few added details surfacing as the day went on. Catch up right here.

Original story follows...

MoviePass is a great idea that only works if its "see all movies in theaters" promise can be fulfilled. Unfortunately for subscribers interested in Mission: Impossible - Fallout, that wasn't the case over the weekend.

Subscribers were already up in arms after app issues temporarily barred them from checking out any movies last Thursday. Even more troubling, the issue was later revealed to be caused by a missed payment owed to one of the service's ticket suppliers.

It took a $5 million loan secured by MoviePass parent Helios and Matheson Analytics to fix the situation, the second such service outage in July 2018. But even that couldn't prepare subscribers for what happened this weekend, when the newly released Mission: Impossible - Fallout wasn't available at all.

Subscribers started tweeting about the issue on Friday, when the movie hit theaters, but MoviePass didn't address the matter until Saturday, when it started responding to disgruntled subscribers. (There wasn't ever any formal, public-facing announcement; just the semi-public customer service replies.)

All of those replies stuck to the same basic language: Fallout is only available in "e-ticketing" theaters right now, though that may change at a later date. Subsequent versions of the response also noted that tickets to the movie may or may not carry an additional Peak Pricing charge, depending on demand.

Nevermind the fact that MoviePass's "e-ticketing" theaters -- businesses with which the company has struck a deal -- are few and far between. I couldn't even tell you how many; non-subscribers aren't able to differentiate between partner theaters and non-partners.

Not that it mattered much either way. All weekend, social media was flooded with complaints from users who claimed that e-ticketing wasn't working. For Fallout and everything else.

This is just a tiny sampling. There are so many tweets like these across Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

In the midst of all of this, MoviePass is also dealing with a subscriber revolt over its July introduction of "Peak Pricing," which is analogous with Uber's "surge" pricing. The idea is sensible enough on the face of things: For the most popular movies, subscribers will have to pay a surcharge of up to $8 (ostensibly dependent on location) for each one they see.

Like most things MoviePass-related, it's hard for a non-subscriber like me to see firsthand how any of this works. But a Peak Pricing "megathread" on the MoviePass subreddit that first posted earlier in July saw a flurry of activity over the weekend.

"Showings for most movies today (including Ant Man still) are up to $6 surcharge after 5pm in Minneapolis," user beeandnee wrote on Thursday.

"Now happening in Boston, MA: $5.25-6.00 fees on most movies past noon at AMC, Regal, and even small theaters in Cambridge/Somerville," another Thursday post, from Jenna_bird, read.

"Skyscraper, Mission Impossible, and Hotel Transylvania are some that currently have surge pricing, but not the Incredibles 2 which has been out for awhile. A ticket is regularly around $14 here... Saving a few dollars only after seeing my second movie in a month is not worth the hassle of dealing with MP ticketing limitations."

A Saturday post from ticapnews: "MoviePass is now charging more in peak pricing ($8) than the price of a ticket at some theaters on the west coast. Also, the app has disabled every theater except partner theaters (for me at least). The only movie displayed at them is MI6 and that is greyed out."

A Sunday post from D_Vecc: "Every single movie is at an $8 surcharge here on long Island for me... I may cancel my subscription if this doesn't change."

This is a tiny cross-section of similar posts that can be found in the sprawling Peak Pricing thread. It's a huge mess, and one that has massive implications ranging far beyond the inconvenience of subscribers being shut out of Mission: Impossible over the weekend.

The MoviePass promise is a great idea that's proven to be popular, but the company's ever-changing terms of service and recent troubles delivering on even the most basic features continue to be a huge problem. It's hard to look at all of this and not come away with the notion that right now we may be witnessing the last days of MoviePass.

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